What it is:
Have you ever had someone make an argument and tell you to "do your research"? Sorry, Charlie. If you’re making a claim,
you need to provide evidence to back it up. It's a logical fallacy to tell someone else to find proof for your own argument.
How to address it:
Because of the nature of nutrition research, there are still lots of things we don’t know. But just because something hasn’t been proven yet doesn’t mean it’s true. And yet, to dismiss a claim based on the fact that there’s no research yet would be fallacious reasoning. So again, we need to evaluate the available evidence and if there isn’t a clear answer, it’s okay to say you don’t know for sure and give your professional opinion based on past experience.
When someone makes a claim without providing evidence, ask for citations (P.S. There's a nice way to do this. Check out my post here on how to word such a request). If they tell you to do your research, know that they're not interested in having a real conversation.